Background

Integrated Climate Adaptation and Resiliency Program (ICARP)

In 2015, Governor Brown signed Senate Bill 246 (Wieckowski), which directed the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research (OPR) to form the Integrated Climate Adaptation and Resiliency Program (ICARP).

The Program is designed to develop a cohesive and coordinated response to the impacts of climate change across State, local, and regional levels. One main component of the Program is this State Climate Adaptation Clearinghouse, which serves as a centralized source of information and resources to assist decision-makers at the state, tribal, regional, and local levels when planning for and implementing climate adaptation and resiliency efforts across California.

About the Adaptation Clearinghouse

While the impacts of climate change pose immediate and growing threats to California’s economy, environment, and people, we know that across the state, Californians are coming together to find local solutions that build resilience and reduce risk. The Adaptation Clearinghouse aims to support a community of practice across the state through knowledge exchange between communities, businesses, and across levels of government.

The Adaptation Clearinghouse allows you to navigate a searchable database of adaptation and resilience resources that have been organized by climate impact, topic, and region. Importantly, the Adaptation Clearinghouse also provides a platform for Californians to share and access case studies and stories about how and why their communities, businesses, and organizations are responding to climate change impacts.

The types of resource included in the Clearinghouse include, but are not limited to:

Assessments, plans or strategies

Communication or educational materials

Planning and/or policy guidance

Data, tools, and research

Case studies, projects, or examples

Integration with Assembly Bill 2516: Sea Level Rise Resources

Passed in 2014, Assembly Bill 2516 (AB2516, Gordon) called for the California Natural Resources Agency, in collaboration with the Ocean Protection Council (OPC), to conduct biannual surveys of sea-level rise planning information to catalog California’s efforts to prepare for rising seas. To improve accessibility and usefulness of these resources to support sea-level rise adaptation and resilience, OPC has partnered with OPR to host the AB2516 resources in the Adaptation Clearinghouse. Resources collected as part of this survey include studies, vulnerability assessments, and local coastal programs, among others. Resources gathered through future surveys, as required by AB182 (Berman), will also be included in the Clearinghouse.

Audience

The primary audience for the Adaptation Clearinghouse is public agencies, planners, and decision-makers, including state, tribal, local (city, county, special district), and regional governments.

While OPR is initially focused on supporting local public sector adaptation efforts, staff recognize that diverse partnerships between nonprofits, community-based organizations, and private sector entities are required to realize successful local climate adaptation implementation. With this in mind, OPR is working to build out a suite of resources that can help with cross-sector and multi-jurisdictional approaches to adaptation and resilience.

The content on the site and resources found in the Clearinghouse are developed in collaboration with many state agencies. Sea-level rise resources and case studies collected by the Ocean Protection Council as required by Assembly Bill 2516 are hosted on this website. Case studies that highlight state adaptation investments through SB 1 are developed in partnership with the California Department of Transportation. OPR also partnered with the California Natural Resources Agency to align this website with Safeguarding California, the state's adaptation strategy. OPR would like to thank all of its state partners for their continued investment into this site.